Common Rail Diesels - Good or Bad?

After many years of owning Landcruisers I switched to a Pajero. 3.2 ltr. CRD. First thing I did is a secondary fuel filter and block off the EGR valve. The filter will protect the high pressure fuel system from crap and water. The blanked off EGR will stop the inlet manifold blocking up and give me much cleaner engine oil. Total cost about $350 , do it yourself. Great peace of mind. . The car averages about 10k/to the liter. Sometimes 8 k to liter and sometimes 12 k to liter. Depends on driving conditions and speed. Towing expect at least 7 k per liter. There are many of these vehicles out there with well in excess of 200,000 ks and not requiring any attention. I do know that the Prado and the V8 motors had injector issues and you had to sell your first born to pay for repairs!!

I have the same mods as Bigfish on my GU Pootrol & have not had any problems. 165000km old getting 14.5 LT per 100k city driving. I also drive a stock Dmax dual cab auto for work which I regularly get 9.2 LT per 100km & occaisionally dips into the 8's. Good thing in my eyes!

The 5k service interval ( oil change) is a diesel specific recommendation not just CRD
Add a secondary filter with a water alarm and you are all good
A Toyota dealer mechanic told me he is servicing a number of client D4D CRD motors with 800k on them and one with 1 million k on it
Give them clean fuel and oil and they are fine

My Hilux got very rattly at start up at the 100K mark, so I had the injectors replaced and put in the extra fuel filter. Cost was $4K Ahhhh!
Haven't done the ERG yet but its on the list after reading posts in this forum.
No one tells you about these issues with the supposedly unbreakable ute prior to purchase.

We bought our first diesel (new) in 2007 and sold it last year to my father @ 300 000km after the previous vehicle being a petrol Pajero. Serviced at dealer every 15000km, never had any problems other than normal wear and tear.
Replaced it with another Pajero last year. No fuel system/ engine modifications, I just try to run the tank down to less than 5litres before refilling.
Love those low 9 to high 8 litres per 100km (measured on longer trips @ 100km/hr, relatively lightly loaded and relatively flat running), after 13's with the petrol version. Too hard for us to measure efficiency around town as a long trip to us around town is 5km.
I'm a fan and with respect to Robin Miller's vastly superior mechanical knowledge to mine, why any one who does > 20000km pa would buy a petrol now a days is beyond me.

Go out & buy the current issue (No. 232) of the 4WD Action magazine. This has a multi page article on common problems with CRD engines, lists some specific problems with some models & also shows how to avoid any potential problems. A lot is really common sense but useful nevertheless if you're a novice with vehicle maintenance.
Hope this helps.

Modern CRDs come with water warning sytems and mostly it's a matter of stopping when you see the alert and draining the bowl under the filter. Opinion is divided on the value of putting in a pre-filter. They take out particles down to say 30 micron while main filters run at about 5 or less.

Country and outback servos are often suspected of having water, diesel bug and other undesirables in their tanks. For particulate contamination an option is to run your fill through a Mr Funnel.

AFAIK there are a couple of generally suspect engines out there. The Nissan 3l TD (aka the hand grenade) and one of the Toyotas - but in respect of this it seems mainly to have been an incorrect service regime recommended by Toyota Aus.

Replacing injectors can be done with reco units to keep the costs down.

One motoring writer argues that diesel doesn't pay for itself unless you do over 30k per year.

Thanks
.....

the problem with Toyota's d4d engine (Prado and Hilux - not sure about others) has been the copper seals on the injectors, which become compromised (broken) although this affects vehicles with as little as 50,000 on the clock yet some get into the high 100s without issue. This has mainly affected models up to and around '08, after which, Toyota decided to replace the old seals. There has also been problems with injectors of the same vintage but again, these have been improved upon. Like the Patrol, the problem isn't universal with the model but occurs enough to make owners a bit jumpy. As a precaution, I'm changing my injectors for the new ones and having the inlet/manifold cleaned out properly - it will cost me something north of $3000 because I have connections in the trade and want to keep my Prado. I did look around at a trade-in and did some test drives but decided I liked my car enough to keep for a few years yet, having equipped it and it suits me all-round. These issues are quite widespread, particularly with Jap cars but not a problem with the much maligned (in Oz) Land Rover or the Fords.

hi
Toyota hilux current shape ,just out of warranty
Injectors are noisey as hell when cold
Toyota have had around 4-5 different injectors in these 3.0TD
Noise concerns me but is not a deal breaker
What your biggest enemy is wear and tare on the injector tip
The current is diamond tipped . This type of tip prevents bad spray patterns causing poor economy and power etc
Did I mention that we had 3 clutches under warranty
The clutch does not lock up all the time, although barely noticeable
Occures after u sit on a 100 kph for around 1 hr then accelerate . It feels weird .The fuel economy gets better after u get a good clutch
ECONOMY 10.0 lts per hundred 100% city
The Toyota varies 20kms per tank

Ford Ranger pk or pj
70,000kms injectors destroyed . As many have complained about after 30,000kms it is impossible to acheive the economy u would expect .
There are reports of the Pj 1st generation has problems with the computer [ECU] causing starting and economy problems
By comparison the economy on the ranger varies 70-90 km per tank
ECONOMY
12ltrs /100 100% city
14-17 ltrs per 100 towing
11 ltrs per 100 high way
This was from a single cab alloy tray 2wd hi rise 450 kg lighter than a 4x4 dual cab


EGR valve
Some later European run twin egr valves ,suppose to reduce the build up of carbon .
I say block the egr and re calibrate ecu

Swampfox

Ol mate, it is the same as when petrols went from leaded to unleaded there is a learning curve.

There is no way around it and all will be sorted in a couple of years. Remember all heavy engines are now common rail and have been for a while. This has caused the same problems for them as it has for light vehicles. No engine will go back to mechanical injection so, until the common rail is really sorted with electronics and injector/pump advancement there will be issues. History wise this will not take long to sort.

I have a common rail and I must admit somehow the erg got blanked off. I also have extra water protection against fuel contamination.

Gotta add, you can pick up contaminated fuel anywhere, it is not confined to country or remote areas.